During presentation, the majority of victims presented with open wounds (93.9%) and active bleeding (82.6%). Preoperative hemorrhagic shock and respiratory distress was recorded in 22.4% and 16.3% of cases respectively. The vast majority of patients, 68(69.4%) reported to the A & E department within 24 hours after injury. None of the patients

received any pre-hospital care and majority of them (76, 77.6%) were brought in by relatives, friends or Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Good Samaritan, 16(16.3%) by police and only 6 (6.2%) click here patients were brought in by ambulance (Table 2). The waiting time (i.e. time interval taken from reception at the A & E department and reception of treatment) ranged from 30 minutes to ten hours with a median of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 4 hours. The majority of patients, 75 (76.5%) were attended to within 2-4 hours of

arrival to the A & E department. All patients in this study underwent surgical procedures as depicted in Table 3. Surgical debridement, laryngeal/hypopharynx repair and tracheostomy were the most common surgical procedures performed accounting for 93.9%, 73.5% and 70.4% of patients respectively. Blood Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical transfusion was recorded in 45.9% of cases. Table 2 Anatomical site, structures injured, presentation and injury-arrival time Table 3 Distribution of patients according to the type of treatment/surgical procedure provided Fifty-six (57.1%) patients developed sixty-four complications of which surgical site infections (28.1%) was the most common complications (Table 4). Complication rate was significantly associated with delayed presentation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and anatomical zones (p<0.001). Table 4 Distribution of patients according to postoperative complications (N=64) The overall length of hospital stay (LOS) ranged from 1 to 72 days with a median of 12 days. The median LOS for non-survivors was 5 days (range 1-12 days). The majority of patients, 69 (70.4%) stayed in hospital less than two week duration. Patients who had post complications Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical stayed longer in the hospital and this was statistically significant (P=0.011).

In this study, eleven patients died giving a mortality rate of 11.2%. According to multivariate logistic Endonuclease regression analysis, associated co-morbidities (OR=1.6, 95% C.I. (1.2- 4.8), P=0.011), delayed presentation (OR=8.4, 95% CI (6.6- 16.4), p=0.020) and presence of complications (OR=11.8, 95% CI (10.1-14.5), p=0.001) were the main predictors of mortality. Of the survivors, 78 (89.7%) patients were discharged well, 6 (6.8%) patients were discharged against medical advice and the remaining 3 (3.4%) patients were discharged with permanent disabilities related to permanent tracheostomy and permanent voice change. Of the survivors, only 32 (36.8%) patients were available for follow-up at 6–12 months and the remaining 55 (63.2%) patients were lost to follow-up.